What's with Y'shtola's vision?

[SannaR]

She is blind. She uses her own aether to help her see things. Everything is made up of aether. It's why Matoya tells her that it'll kill her one day. Though so far the devs haven't shown what kind of toll it's been taking on her. She probably just wanted Urianger to give a poetic version of what the night sky looked like on the 1st. These types of questions are best suited for the Lore section of the forum. I do believe there was/is a thread that talks about this topic in that section.

[Adeacia]

She is blind. She uses her own aether to help her see things. Everything is made up of aether. It's why Matoya tells her that it'll kill her one day. Though so far the devs haven't shown what kind of toll it's been taking on her. She probably just wanted Urianger to give a poetic version of what the night sky looked like on the 1st. These types of questions are best suited for the Lore section of the forum. I do believe there was/is a thread that talks about this topic in that section.

This here. Also, though Matoya did say that, there was no timeline given. It could simply mean she'll leave 5 years less then the average lifespan of her kind. It's not something that actually has to be directly addressed in the story itself.

[Nothv13]

This here. Also, though Matoya did say that, there was no timeline given. It could simply mean she'll leave 5 years less then the average lifespan of her kind. It's not something that actually has to be directly addressed in the story itself.

I recall that it was really only the English translation that said it would shorten her life, though I could be wrong as I don't speak the other languages.

[Liam_Harper]

This here. Also, though Matoya did say that, there was no timeline given. It could simply mean she'll leave 5 years less then the average lifespan of her kind. It's not something that actually has to be directly addressed in the story itself.

They do deliberately mention it takes a toll on her lifeforce though, in story telling it would be strange to mention something like that and do nothing with it. I expect it will come up again, there have been plenty of things in the story they've brought up, then concluded several expansions later or more.

I doubt they'd kill her off, she's in enough of the story to have plot armor at this stage, but my guess would be it will start showing effect when it comes to the final battles in Endwalker. That's sure to be a lot of strain.

[Adeacia]

They do deliberately mention it takes a toll on her lifeforce though, in story telling it would be strange to mention something like that and do nothing with it. I expect it will come up again, there have been plenty of things in the story they've brought up, then concluded several expansions later or more.

I doubt they'd kill her off, she's in enough of the story to have plot armor at this stage, but my guess would be it will start showing effect when it comes to the final battles in Endwalker. That's sure to be a lot of strain.

I've seen plenty of stories have situations like this, but it doesn't take its toll until after the story ends. Says what happens to them during the ending. Wild Arms 4 is an example. One character has some kind of condition that will kill her sooner rather than later. It's brought up many times in the story, and during the ending it explains that she only lives for a few years after the story concludes. The Suikoden series is also good for this kind of thing. During the ending it shows what happened to every single one of the possible 108 characters you actually recruited after the story ended.

While it's true that being this is an mmo that format may not work quite as well unless its done properly, it's still a thing that can be done.

[Kolsykol]

Though so far the devs haven't shown what kind of toll it's been taking on her.

In fairness not much time has really passed.

I forget sometimes myself because of how many expansions there have been but in-game it has not actually been that long.

[SannaR]

In fairness not much time has really passed.

I forget sometimes myself because of how many expansions there have been but in-game it has not actually been that long.

Depends on how much time you want to say has passed in the time bubble. As more than once has the game said that this or that will take a month. Part of the reason people get grumpy about her eye sight not bothering her as the devs seem to acknowledge that it's a thing when they remember it while not having it seem to place any strain on her. Heck they've showed us how hampered Thancred is from no longer being able to teleport or really use his own aether. Yet she who has gone and used flow twice seems to not be as hampered.

[Kolsykol]

Depends on how much time you want to say has passed in the time bubble. As more than once has the game said that this or that will take a month. Part of the reason people get grumpy about her eye sight not bothering her as the devs seem to acknowledge that it's a thing when they remember it while not having it seem to place any strain on her. Heck they've showed us how hampered Thancred is from no longer being able to teleport or really use his own aether. Yet she who has gone and used flow twice seems to not be as hampered.

She was only gone for a very short while the second time, she was brought back almost immediately.
The way I interpreted it was that the longer you stay the higher the risks, which was why we were in a rush to get her back when we found out what happened.
Thancred just made it out worse than she did the first time.
He got more unlucky.

I agree to some extent that there wasn't much of a consequence to it in effect.
But I also don't think that there was meant to be a directly noticable one like with Thancred, I think they just wanted to kinda leave that as a thing that yeah she's back but her lifespan was drastically shortened.
Not in the sense that she'll die because of it ingame but just to make you feel like there was a cost.

I don't really think that we need to see it happen, at least imo.
It's like if you were playing a RPG and a character got cancer from some radiation event, I don't think that it needs to be sped up and that the character needs to develop cancer and die from it on-screen.
The implications I got was that Y'shtola is going to die or at least weaken a lot and have to stop doing it and go totally blind at some point, but not necessarily on-screen and during the time that the game takes place in ( unless she survives and there is a time-skip ).

[SannaR]

She was only gone for a very short while the second time, she was brought back almost immediately.
The way I interpreted it was that the longer you stay the higher the risks, which was why we were in a rush to get her back when we found out what happened.
Thancred just made it out worse than she did the first time.
He got more unlucky.

I agree to some extent that there wasn't much of a consequence to it in effect.
But I also don't think that there was meant to be a directly noticable one like with Thancred, I think they just wanted to kinda leave that as a thing that yeah she's back but her lifespan was drastically shortened.
Not in the sense that she'll die because of it ingame but just to make you feel like there was a cost.

I don't really think that we need to see it happen, at least imo.
It's like if you were playing a RPG and a character got cancer from some radiation event, I don't think that it needs to be sped up and that the character needs to develop cancer and die from it on-screen.
The implications I got was that Y'shtola is going to die or at least weaken a lot and have to stop doing it and go totally blind at some point, but not necessarily on-screen and during the time that the game takes place in ( unless she survives and there is a time-skip ).

I don't really want to see it either. Heck I tend to not pay it much mind. I just have that info in the back of my head so I can pop it out as a reminder to people who forgot. It just feels different with how the devs treat it and her as a whole versus other characters. So, sure she was barely in the lifestream the second time which normally shouldn't be a big deal. Yet this time she went in just as a soul. Don't get me wrong I love 'Shtola, but I can see where a few people feel that she has as thick plot armor as the WoL does. If only based off that she has been the face of the game for cross over type stuff and whatnot.

[ChazNatlo]

She probably just wanted Urianger to give a poetic version of what the night sky looked like on the 1st.

Slight tangent, but would anyone else have just died if she had asked for him to describe the night sky to her and he had to awkwardly explain that while we dispelled the light screen in the sky, we'd done it at about Noon so it's still light out?